We recently published a revised version of our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions By using this site, you agree to these revised documents including the use of cookies
to enhance your experience. We kindly ask you to take a few minutes to read and understand them.

Sources involved in the investigation told The Sunday Times of Malta that organised crime links between Malta, Italy and Libya, among other countries, were being considered among “the main avenues of investigation” into Monday’s car bombing.

In a statement this morning, the government however denied Mr Giarrusso’s claims and said Malta’s ambassador in Rome had already requested an explanation about this invention.

The Foreign Affairs Minister also asked for an explanation from Italy’s ambassador in Malta.

The government said both confirmed that the Maltese government had never been consulted or expressed itself, formally or informally on any members of the delegation.

The sources told The Sunday Times of Malta: “We have now made contact with international anti-mafia services as part of this inquiry: our belief is that this murder could have ties to the criminal underworld and an international network of illegal activity that Ms Caruana Galizia herself may have been looking into.”

They said a recently exposed international fuel smuggling racket, involving two Maltese men, was “just one” of the leads being looked at by investigators.

The Times of Malta yesterday reported the two men, Darren and Gordon Debono, were allegedly involved in the transportation of fuel being exported illegally from the Zawia Libyan refinery and shipped to Europe via ships bunkered off Malta.

Some 80 million kilograms of fuel oil worth in excess of €30 million are believed to have been sold on the black market through the racket. The sources said it was believed Ms Caruana Galizia may have been looking into the racket. They also said that this was not the first local car bombing that investigators believe could be linked to the smuggling of fuel.

Investigations into a similar deadly explosion in Marsaxlokk in 2014 also led to suspected ties with the smuggling of fuel from Libya to Italy, the sources said.

Investigators said the inquiry into the 2014 murder of fuel company owner Darren Degabriele had led to a shortlist of possible suspects, however even if the smuggling turned out to be a solid lead, they pointed to the difficulty of gathering enough information to lead to an arrest.

“These crimes will leave little to no trail, and the people believed to be involved will have rock solid alibies. These are crimes that are extremely difficult to crack,” one source said.

Lengthy reports have been published by the United Nations in recent years detailing how Maltese companies and vessels were involved in transferring tons of smuggled fuel from Libya to Europe, and the dangerous criminal elements behind them.

Meanwhile, the sources stressed that investigations into the murder were, however, still at an early stage and other plausible theories were being given just as much importance.

One such theory being investigated stems from a vague blog post on the late journalist’s Running Commentary website in March of this year.

In the post, Ms Caruana Galizia said she was working on developing a story about “one shady cigarette man in Cyprus, a few containers of cigarettes that were not where they were supposed to be and cash and bank drafts that moved between Malta and Cyprus around 2008/2009”.

“Again this is something we are investigating as something of interest that could have a link to the car bombing,” the source said, reiterating that the investigation was still at a “very early stage” and a number of similar possibilities were being explored.

Investigators are trawling through thousands of posts uploaded on Ms Caruana Galizia’s popular website since its inception in 2008 in a bid to get a better idea of likely suspects. This includes sifting through the many more thousands of comments left by readers, many of which were written using aliases.

Europol, the EU’s crime-fighting agency, has been roped in to help coordinate efforts between the Maltese police and international organised-crime investigators.

Advert

See our Comments PolicyComments are submitted under the express understanding and condition that the
editor may, and is authorised to, disclose any/all of the above personal information to any person or
entity requesting the information for the purposes of legal action on grounds that such person or entity
is aggrieved by any comment so submitted. Please allow some time for your comment to be moderated.

Popup

Times of Malta Premium

This article is part of our premium content.You have exceeded your 10 free articles for this month.
A subscription is required to access Times of Malta content from overseas.
Register to get 10 free articles per month.

Subscribe to gain access to our premium content and services. Your subscription will also enable you to
view all of the week's e-paper editions (both Times of Malta and The Sunday Times of Malta), view exclusive
content, have full access to our newspaper archive to download editions from 1930 to today, and access the
website in full from overseas. All of this will also be available to you from our tablet and mobile apps.